Disclaimer---I don't own anything, none of the characters of M*A*S*H, if there is a 'Adam's Rib' diner, don't own that, nothing, just the plotline. Enjoy and please if anybody reads this, please respond with a review!!!!

He stepped into the diner, he shook the rain off his jacket and looked around and there was a hat rack so he put his jacket on it then went to go sit down. He had been in Chicago three months so far and hasn't ate here and he thought he would give it a try, he remembers that time at the Mash outfit in Korea about Hawkeye having a fit for these ribs that they made here so he found this diner advertisement in the paper and he thought 'Why not?' Adam's Rib's. He was hungry just thinking about it. He missed lunch, too busy at the hospital. Too busy trying to forget. He went to go sit down at a empty table and a young waitress came up to his table with a pad and pencil, she looked at 'Trapper' John McIntryre and asked:

"What can I get you?"

Trapper scratched his forehead then said:

"Order of ribs, a coke and oh yeah, slaw on the side"

'That was important', he thought, 'Hawkeye almost had a fit when he forgot the slaw'

She writes down the order then turns to hand it in. He sat back and closed his eyes, he heard the door open but he didn't look to see who it was.

It was her. Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan. She too was in Chicago, she wanted a new place to start over, to begin so she started work at the local hospital, she picked Chicago of all places to begin a new life, one from her father, one from Korea, one from Donald and Frank....and she runs into him.

She might as well be friendly! she thought so she goes over after she takes off her rain jacket and clears her throat:

"Ahem"

Trapper opens his eyes and he can't believe it! he blinks and then he says:

"Margaret!"

She smiles and he gets up and hugs her and signals for her to sit down with him at the table, she does abet nervous. The same waitress who is barely out of her teens comes over with the same pad and pencil and Margaret says:

"Oh, um, ribs please and a glass of water, please"

The waitress starts to leave when Trapper tells her:

"Add a order of slaw to that..."

He smiles at Margaret and says:

"On me"

The waitress leaves and Trapper tells Margaret, 'The slaw is the best...according to Hawkeye"

She smiles then asks:

"Have you heard from him? where he is?"

Trapper says:

"In Maine, practicing at his father's office, he's still trying to convince all the locals that he's not some psycho luntic out to kill him"

Margaret shakes her head and remembers---Hawkeye was put in the physiological hospital in Seoul just prior to the war ending. He couldn't take it after a local woman killed her baby after Hawkeye trying to make her quiet the baby for fear of the Koreans finding them. Trapper pulls her out of her thoughts:

"Margaret? what are you doing? what are you doing here in Chicago?"

She shakes her head then says:

"Oh, I'm here, working at the hospital"

The waitress brings them their cokes, sits them down then he asks her:

"You're not working at a army hospital?"

She shakes her head then says:

"No, I got out...it's strange, I thought the Army was my life but...other things came along"

He shakes his head then says:

"The war changed a lot of things for us all"

The waitress brings out their ribs, sits them down and Trapper says:

"They have fast service here"

Margaret smiles at the food then says:

"Let's see how they taste"

Trapper takes a bite of his as does Margaret and both they're eyes widen and Margaret says:

"Yummmm!"

Trapper then says:

"This is better than what my father used to make...no disrespect dad"

Margaret laughs then says:

Hawkeye certainly knew what he was talking about"

Trapper shakes his head then says:

"No wonder he was crazy about this place...no pun intended"

Margaret laughs then finally asks Trapper:

"What are you doing here? In Chicago?"

This is what he was dreading, telling the first person. He sighs, throws down his napkin and says:

"I'm interviewing for a job at a hospital"

Margaret looks surprised then says:

"Oh? you're not in Boston anymore?"

He takes another bite of ribs then says:

"No"

She then asks after her bite:

"What about Louise? the kids? are they here?"

He looks out the window then says:

"Louise left me a year after I got home, we tried for the kids but we knew things weren't the same after I got back"